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Title: To the Best of Our Knowledge: Why Do We Love Sad Songs?
Author: Jim Fleming
Format: Original Recording
Length: 52 mins
Language: English
Release date: 11-18-11
Publisher: Wisconsin Public Radio (To the Best of Our Knowledge)
Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Radio & TV, Great Interviews
Publisher's Summary:
In this hour, why do we love sad songs? Its true, we do, and its not just Greensleeves and Yesterday. Theres a language of melancholy worth exploring. The saddest music of all to many people is Samuel Barbers Adagio for Strings. Thomas Larson is the author of The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barbers Adagio for Strings and he tells Anne Strainchamps how it earns that name.
Then, sad songs are just part of the story. Anyone who has suffered a broken heart knows the satisfaction of listening to Leonard Cohens Hallelujah or Paul McCartney singing Yesterday. According to psychologist Meagan Curtis, the inherent sadness of the minor third is what we hear in music. She tells Steve Paulson that a recent study suggests it is also what we hear in speech.
Next, there are sad songs in rock, and sad songs in jazz, but the resting place for the saddest songs is clearly in country music. There are so many we just didnt how to choose, so we put the question to the foremost historian of country music in America, Bill Malone. He tells Steve Paulson a thing or two about sad country music.
And finally, no matter what genre youre writing for, adding a cello can increase the melancholy. Its true now, and it was true a couple of centuries ago when J.S. Bach was writing his suites for unaccompanied cello. Journalist Eric Siblin had written about rock for years, but he tells Jim Fleming about his discovery of Bach, and how he came to write The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece. [Broadcast Date: November 18, 2011]